David Hanak This article will not be a review, rather it will be an introduction to the program, or an application that could please many players of the DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) system and some of its derivatives. So, if you belong to an active gaming community, and the name Herolab doesn't mean anything to you, you can continue reading further. Maybe Herolab is exactly what you are looking for.
Older players who have been playing and "mastering" for many years may wonder why they need to use any electronics when playing, when they have been getting by with just a pencil and plain paper for years (some even decades). I encountered a similar opinion in my team, but the more I used Herolab, the more it made sense even to seasoned veterans.
First of all, it is necessary to point out what Herolab actually is. It is a software developed by an American studio Lone Wolf Development and it is essentially a very experienced manager and editor of characters, monsters and NPCs. Herolab supports a large number of game systems, the most popular of which logically include DnD (support for all versions from 3.0) and Pathfinder RPG. To use it, you need to purchase a license for a specific game system and then a license for additional books, be it rules, various Adventure Paths, Bestiaries and others. In my opinion, the only problem of the entire platform is related to this, which is the financial cost.
The basic license, which includes the program as such + one game system, costs $35. However, this price includes the absolute basis of the given game system. For example, for Pathfinder, there are only a few basic rules books in this price (see <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a>), others you have to purchase in order for their data to be available in the program. In the end, the purchase can be significantly more expensive. Purchases of expansion rules, new campaigns, etc. are basically necessary if you want to work more with the platform. The only positive thing is that you get five secondary licenses for one main license, i.e. you can divide the license among your teammates and share the costs. However, you won't get more than five licenses, so if there are six of you playing, the last one is out of luck.
Enough of the finances though, let's see how Herolab looks like in practice. I will not discuss the main program for PC (Mac) here, as that is not the goal of this article. It's been about two and a half years since Lone Wolf Development released a companion app for the iPad. After months of waiting, the users got it and it must be noted that it is really worth it. The iPad version can be used in two modes. In the first, it serves as an interactive diary for playing as such. An active license is not required for this use, and the application on the iPad works with the file that Herolab for PC (Mac) generates for you. However, if you insert your own license into the application on the iPad, it becomes a full-fledged editor that contains essentially all the functions of the desktop version. I personally use the application in the first mentioned way, because it is completely sufficient for my personal needs.
It is very easy to use and anyone who has ever seen a character sheet will feel right at home. The application can be connected to dropbox, so you will always have everything updated (which is useful, for example, after a break of several months) and you can have all your diaries in a pile. As for the in-play mode, you can enter and edit practically everything you encounter during the game (see the gallery, where many screenshots are selected). From basic information about the character, through editing equipment, weapons, tracking spells, potions and other "consumables". You have an immediate view of all statistics, skills, traits and feats, with a detailed description taken from the rules, i.e. 100% accurate.
However, the best feature of Herolab for iPad is the modification of individual stats. The application will calculate for you basically everything that you set into it. You will always have all penalties or bonuses correctly calculated. It will never happen that you forget an extra attack from Hast, or some penalty on a save or condition. Purists may argue that in the days of "pencil and paper" everyone had to pay attention to these things and thus learned more about the rules themselves. You can't disagree with that, but this more modern approach is much faster and foolproof. Additionally, at higher character levels, the number of things to watch out for increases significantly. In this way, Herolab significantly increases the smoothness of playing, as it monitors and calculates most things for you. Not to mention the complete integrated database of all items, spells, weapons, equipment and other items.
Another huge advantage is the developer support. The folks at Herolab for iPad are really hard at work and new updates appear regularly, at most every fortnight. Over the years of use, I have come across a minimum of bugs that would happen to me while playing. In addition, regular updates make the data in Herolab more up-to-date than, for example, printed versions of the rules that may be several years old. I personally cannot recommend Herolab more. If you play DnD regularly and play a system that is supported by Herolab, I recommend trying at least the trial version. The desktop program is a bit "old school" in terms of design, but functionally there is nothing to complain about. And having an iPad with a fully editable diary at your disposal while sitting is simply priceless. If you have any questions about the application, write in the comments :)
Gallery
